Pinnegar’s attempted assault on Sunday

Albert Pinnegar’s attempted assault on Sunday Small exposes the danger behind her impending departure from the workhouse. Although Sunday leaves without being raped, the encounter confirms her fear of Pinnegar and later becomes part of the testimony through which she reveals his abuse of the girls in his care.

Background and Threat

By the time Sunday is preparing to leave, Pinnegar has already shown a pattern of sexual predation toward girls in the institution. Sunday later tells Lady Lavinia Huntley that he took an interest in Cissie Burns, drew her into his office, and forced himself on her. When Cissie became pregnant, Miss Frost promised that she and her baby would be sent somewhere they could be cared for. Instead, an asylum carriage arrived to take Cissie away. Cissie recognized it, protested that she had been promised a safe place, and was removed despite her distress. The episode shows the institutional power surrounding Pinnegar’s abuse: Cissie’s accusation was met with Miss Frost’s hostility, while the girl herself faced confinement and separation from her child.

Sunday’s own departure brings Pinnegar’s attention directly upon her. As she prepares to go, she is shaking, though she keeps her voice steady when Miss Frost asks whether she is ready. The threat is not an isolated suspicion: Sunday later says that Pinnegar was interested in girls as they grew older and had tried to do things to her as well.

The Attempt and Escape

After Sunday leaves the housemaster’s room, Pinnegar slams his fist onto the desk, overturning the inkwell, and swears. His anger continues after she has gone; he resolves not to rest until he has her, by fair means or foul. The gesture makes his reaction to her departure more than wounded authority: it carries the menace of a man who believes he can still pursue her beyond the immediate encounter.

Miss Frost escorts Sunday to the door. Sunday later understands that Frost has just saved her from being raped, although she does not believe Frost knew what she had prevented. The escape therefore comes through an unintended intervention rather than protection deliberately offered to Sunday. She says goodbye with dignity, stands for a moment staring at the closed door, and recognizes how narrowly she has escaped before turning to Lady Lavinia Huntley and setting out to begin her new life.

Disclosure and Consequences

After leaving the workhouse, Sunday tells Lady Lavinia Huntley about Cissie’s pregnancy, Pinnegar’s assault on her, and the asylum carriage that took her away. The account is difficult to give: Sunday breaks down as she recalls Cissie’s fate, then confirms that she believes Cissie was telling the truth. She explains that the girls’ limited contact with male inmates made the workhouse’s public explanation implausible, and identifies Pinnegar’s attempted abuse of her as further evidence against him.

Sunday asks Lady Lavinia Huntley to go to Hatter’s Hall and see Cissie Burns, whom she believes is still confined because no one has come to claim her. Her disclosure turns a private escape into an accusation that can be investigated. It also shows how the assaults are linked in Sunday’s understanding: Cissie’s forced removal, Pinnegar’s conduct toward her, and the threat to Sunday herself are parts of a pattern rather than unrelated misfortunes.

Significance

The episode marks a precarious boundary between escape and continued vulnerability. Sunday leaves the workhouse, but Pinnegar’s fury makes clear that departure alone has not erased his power to intimidate her. The later disclosure gives her a means of resisting that power: she speaks not only about what he attempted against her but also about what happened to Cissie, directing Lady Lavinia Huntley toward a possible witness.

The scene also complicates Miss Frost’s role. She had helped send Cissie toward confinement and had condemned Cissie when she accused Pinnegar, yet at the door she unknowingly interrupts the assault on Sunday. Sunday can acknowledge this narrow rescue without mistaking it for deliberate support. That distinction preserves the event’s central tension: a moment of escape occurs within an institution whose authorities have otherwise failed to protect the girls.